Elsevier

Kidney International

Volume 75, Issue 7, 1 April 2009, Pages 746-751
Kidney International

Original Article
Periodontal disease adversely affects the survival of patients with end-stage renal disease

https://doi.org/10.1038/ki.2008.660Get rights and content
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Periodontal disease is associated with cardiovascular disease and is thought to accelerate systemic atherosclerosis. Here we examined the relationship between periodontitis and cardiovascular disease mortality in outpatients on hemodialysis using a retrospective analysis of 168 adult patients in New York City and North Carolina. During 18 months of follow-up, cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality were determined from a centralized dialysis registry. One hundred patients had mild or no periodontal disease but the remaining 68 had moderate-to-severe disease defined as 2 or more teeth with at least 6 mm of inter-proximal attachment loss. At baseline, the proportion of males was significantly lower in the moderate-to-severe group. Compared with mild or no periodontal disease, moderate-to-severe disease was significantly associated with death from cardiovascular causes. Adjustment for age, gender, center and dialysis vintage, smoking status, and history of diabetes mellitus or hypertension did not diminish the strength of this association. Our findings suggest a need for larger studies to confirm this connection, along with intervention trials to determine if treating periodontitis reduces cardiovascular disease mortality in dialysis patients.

Keywords

CVD mortality
ESRD
periodontitis

Cited by (0)

All the authors declared no competing interests.